It’s Time for Vote Reform

In 1948 Lyndon Baines Johnson’s political career was revived by a “lost” ballot box which put him 58 votes over popular Governor Coke Stevenson in that year’s Senate race. The Miami Herald won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for uncovering how “vote brokers” employed by candidate Xavier Suarez stole a mayoral election by tampering with 4,740 absentee ballots. In 2004, Representative Ciro Rodriguez charged a missing ballot box appeared in south Texas during a primary recount with enough votes to make his opponent the Democratic nominee by 58 votes and Democrat Christine Gregoire wins the Washington state gubernatorial election by 110 votes based, in large part, on 723 “lost” votes in King County. Some 56 years after LBJ stole an election through ballot fraud, it’s time for enough vote security reform that will prevent these mass ballot problems.

As a former election judge here in Texas I can talk about our system. In order to vote in Texas you must have and present a voter’s registration card, which may or may not be stamped with “voted” when presented for voting. If it is your first time to vote, you are also supposed to present a form of photo identification. If you forget your registration card, then you can present some other form of identification. Suggested forms include: your driver’s license, birth certificate, or a copy of your electric bill. Voting on the strength of something as easily forged as an electric bill (and the documents I received as an election judge stated it more broadly as an “utility bill”) creates a situtation ripe for fraud.

We need to start off with more stringent voter identification requirements.

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